Citizens' Assembly sessions

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Throughout the Citizens’ Assembly process we held a number of ‘Show and Share’ sessions. These were open for anyone to attend to hear about what had taken place at the most recent sessions (without sharing the detail of the deliberations that took place).

These were led by the lead facilitator from TPXImpact.

Sessions

Session 1 held 21 February

In this introductory session, Assembly Members were introduced to the citizens’ assembly and its background, purpose and goals. They discussed the high-level global, national and local context for the process and started to get to know each other.
Speakers:
• Cllr Barry Rawlings, Leader of the Council
• Cllr Alan Schneiderman, Lead Member for Climate Change
• Malini Mehra, Chief executive of GLOBE International
• Adam Driscoll, Local resident and Co-chair of Council Staff Sustainability Network
• Yogita Popat, Assistant Director for Sustainability at Barnet Council

Session 2 and 3 held 5 March

In this session, Assembly Members reflected on the first meeting and the areas of interest outlined then. There was also an opportunity to connect with the youth process and emerging ideas before an introduction to visioning through an immersive activity. In the afternoon, the Members explored the key themes of the assembly - housing & buildings, transport, sustainable consumption, natural environment & biodiversity - considering:
• How we interact with the environment in Barnet
• How we want Barnet to prosper and flourish
• How we might need to interact differently in future
Speakers:
• Syed Ahmed, Energy for London(External link)
• Ben Samuel, Better Streets for Barnet(External link)
• Ranjit Singh, Library of Things(External link)
• Carole Wright, Community gardener in South London

Session 4 held 20 March

In this session, Assembly Members discussed the idea of fairness, equity and co-benefits to inform decision making which was used as a framework to think about how we make change happen. They then defined their vision for a more sustainable Barnet through an interactive activity.
Speakers:
• Neil Jennings, Grantham Institute for Climate Change(External link)
• Rachael Orr, Climate Outreach(External link)
• Yogita Popat, Assistant Director for Sustainability at Barnet Council

Session 5 held 29 March

In this session, Assembly Members looked back at the vision for a more sustainable Barnet developed in Session 4. They then had the opportunity to engage informally with a number of community initiatives in Barnet before coming up with a longlist of ideas for how to address the challenges.

Session 6 held 22 APRIL 

In this session, we will look back at where we are in the journey and discuss how we will make decisions as an Assembly. We will have a panel of council officers responsible for the key thematic areas and there will be the opportunity to ask them questions before moving onto co-evaluating ideas and a visioning activity.

Ask Me Anything Panel: 

  • Yogita Popat, LBB Assistant Director of Sustainability 
  • Cath Shaw, LBB Deputy CEO 
  • Chris Smith, LBB Assistant Director of Estates & Decarbonisation 
  • Craig Miller, LBB Director of Street Scene 
  • Katherine Carr, LBB Public Health team 
  • Matthew Gunyon, LBB Greenspaces Service Manager 
  • Neeru Kareer, Assistant Service Director (Planning) 

 

Sessions 7 and 8 held 20 and 21 May

This was the final weekend of the citizens’ assembly and the final recommendations were drafted. During the first session, the assembly began drafting provisional recommendations and the recommendations from the Young People’s Assembly were presented. In the final session, assembly members voted on which recommendations were a priority and decided their final list of 20.

There were no external speakers at this session.